MnSearch Hits 100 Members Strong

Once upon a time, there was no place a passionate search marketing geek could go on a monthly basis to talk CRO, rich snippets, rankings, Screaming Frogs and drink link juice (or beer). But the Minnesota Search Engine Marketing Association made such wild dreams a reality in January of 2012 and now a little over a year later we’ve grown to over 100 members strong. We’re not done yet.

Why is MnSearch Growing?

I’ll offer up my take in 3 quick reasons that MnSearch has moved from a handful of founding board members to over 100 paid members strong in just 13 months. Then I’ll turn it over to our members who were asked why they are a member at our March event and they tweeted their answers using #MnSearch100 as a hashtag.

1. The people. Our initial members have shown up to events, brought friends and co-workers, tweeted and “liked” and been an awesome core to start this organization with. Minnesota and the Twin Cities has a talented and passionate group of search marketing professionals and online marketers.

2. The events. As an events director for MnSearch I might be biased, but we have amazing knowledge share at our events. We’ve brought in national search marketing thought leaders like Taylor Pratt, John Dougherty, Arnie Kuenn and Marty Weintraub to present on many aspects of search and online marketing. Our Search Snippet events feature great local talent as 3 local presenters dive into different search topics like Retargeting or Local Search (our next event!). Our events give everyone a lot of insight, strategy and tactics to chew on. Takeaways are in the dozens every time out, see a few of the past slide decks.

3. A solid board. I’m fortunate to work along side a great group of board members that has put in the hustle and planning to help guide this amazing organization to where it’s at now and it’s next steps.

Member Approved

Here are a few of the tweets our members shared with us on why MnSearch has grown and why it’s valuable to them.

I continue to attend #mnsearch100 cuz there are lots of people here way smarter than me…Beer is pretty cool too

Thank You!

I want to wrap up this post with a huge thank you to the members of MnSearch and the visitors to our events. As I outlined in reason #1, you are the heart and soul of our group and it’s been great getting to know so many smart and great people in the Twin Cities who are interested in search. I look forward to further member growth, thanks to everyone’s efforts and support!